Heyo. I like music. Collecting it, listening to it, rolling in it. Now I wanna talk about it. I think I might start posting about my music collecting here. Or maybe I won’t. We shall see. Anyway, feel free to drop by; maybe we can have some nice discussions. 

As an introduction, you can browse thru my current library here if you like*. My tastes vary fairly widely, but I mainly listen to rock and it’s varieties from the ’60’s to the ’90s. I abhor rap, hip-hop, post-circa2005 country, and modern pop. I listen digitally, use iTunes, and currently am in possession of about 6,000 songs. I don’t like streaming services and have discontinued my use of Pandora, etc because I like to be in control of what i listen to. All songs that I like and want to hear regularly are marked with a 5-Star rating and are automatically placed in a massive smart playlist that currently could play for 5 days, 16 hours, and 48 minutes without repeating a song. It’s like my own little radio station and i’m rather proud of it.

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I made a nice haul today. Got my paycheck, had a surplus, so I treated myself and the fam. Gotta spend it before it burns a hole in my slacks y’know. 

Albums:

First up, here’s two i actually got a few days ago:

Astral Weeks - Van Morrison
I only recently got into Van the Man. I had a few of his songs I knew and liked, but no albums. A few days ago i was listening to my favorite song of his, “Caravan” from The Last Waltz soundtrack, and i was just so into it—that sheer power and soul he puts into his singing. So I resolved to fill this gap in my collection. I chose this album because everyone “in the know” sings of it’s glory, and from what I heard about it, it seemed pretty interesting. I do really like it; It’s a bit mellow so i don’t see myself listening to it all the time, but it’s got a nice feel. My fave tracks are “Astral Weeks”, “The Way Young Lovers Do”, and “Madame George”. “Ballerina” is growing on me too; that baseline is heavenly!!

Moondance - Van Morrison
Got this because it’s also highly praised, and because it’s a more straight-up album with some great hits to complement the more artsy feel of Astral Weeks. Plus, it has good ol’ “Caravan”. I liked this one as well! The first half just blows you away; the second half is also good, but doesn’t quite wow you like the first side. I hate the album cover tho; it probably looked fine at the time, but nowadays it looks too much like those cheap compilation CDs you find at Kmart. Best tracks: “And it Stoned Me”, “Moondance”, “Caravan”, “Into the Mystic”, and more.

Now for what I got today:

Gord’s Gold - Gordon Lightfoot 
I love Gordon Lightfoot. Such a great, smooth voice, beautiful songs. Love singing along to this guy. But for all too long I’ve neglected to expand my horizons to more than a handful of his songs, and I finally decided to do something about it. I usually steer FAR away from greatest hits albums like these, but this one has some versions of his earlier songs that aren’t found on any other albums, so i got it anyway. Don’t have any picks yet for this one, but if you’re new to Gordy, check out “Sundown”, “Race Among the Ruins”, or “If I Could Read Your Mind”.

Shadows - Gordon Lightfoot
Another Gordo pick. No one seems to like this one much, but I don’t know why! There are some KILLER songs on here. Also, his singing has a much more biting, snarly thing going on in this one than I can recall from his other work. If the rest of the album is as good as these stellar picks—“14 Carat Gold”, “Baby Step Back”, and “In My Fashion”—then I’m gonna frickn’ love this one.

Born Under a Bad Sign - Albert King
The blues, baby!! Can’t beat it. I’ve been trying to gather more classic blues for my collection. It’s incredible how the more music you hear, the more you can grasp the form of it; you start to see how stuff like this inspired so much other music to come. You can feel the birth of bands like Cream, Led Zeppelin, etc in these old blues records. This one is a little newer, hailing from ’67, but it’s still got that sound. I picked it out because a.) I know its a favorite of many other blues-rock musicians, b.) because I believe the backing musicians are the guys from Booker T. & the M.G.’s of “Green Onions” fame, and c.) because it sounds goddamn badass, man. Just go take a listen to the title track and you’ll see what i mean.

Pilgrim - Eric Clapton
Another usually maligned album from an artist who didn’t age well. But I think theres something really special about this album. It’s got that dreamlike synthy 90’s sound that I love but don’t find very often; the last album i heard it on was on some tracks of Depeche Mode’s Violator. It also has one of the single greatest guitar solos in Eric’s career. Eric is such a fantastic guitarist, but since he left bands like Cream and Derek and the Dominoes he’s mostly kept his skill bottled up, never letting his talent really shine. But at the end of the title track of this album, he just lets it all fly out in a glorious climax. It’s very moving. I already had a few tracks from this one, but i figured it deserved to finally be completed. Picks: “My Father’s Eyes”, “Pilgrim”, “Circus”, “River of Tears”

20th Century Masters: The Grass Roots - The Grass Roots
Yep, another of my loathed greatest-hits CDs. But in this case i justify it because their catalogue is too messy for me to want to bother with, and every single song i want is here. These guys were freakin awesome. They were a folk-rock band with a 60’s pop vibe. Had some hits but were never super popular. Remember Creed from that show The Office? He used to play with these guys in their early days. Picks: “Let’s Live for Today”, “Midnight Confessions”, “Temptation Eyes”, “Sooner of Later”, “Where Were You When I Needed You?”

Songs:

“The Thrill Is Gone” - B.B. King
………I realized I didn’t have any B.B. King in my library….whoops
“Jim Jones (at Botany Bay)” - Bob Dylan
Heard a great version of this sung by Jennifer Jason Leigh in The H8ful Eight, but the version on the soundtrack isn’t cleaned up, leaving all the movie sounds in and i didn’t like that. I jumped on this when i saw Dylan did a version, cuz he’s my number 1 favorite artist of all time. I’m a goddamn Dylan freak.
“Words of Love” - Buddy Holly
A very nice song.
“Wooden Ships (Live)” - Crosby and Nash
Personally my favorite version of the CSN hit. This is from the Another Stoney Evening live album.
“Great Balls of Fire” Jerry Lee Lewis
“Dancing in the Street” - Martha Reeves and the Vandellas
Both just classics.

So that was today’s haul. Looking forward to a nice listening session sometime soon.

*some things were removed from the pdf cuz I didn’t find them relevant. nothing big tho.